Keith Early Woodward

Keith was born in Omaha, NE in 1928 to Leah Keith Early and Walter Early. She had a very adventurous spirit and upbringing. She lived in Omaha, Chicago, Los Angeles, Manhattan (where she was raised), Pelham, NY and Europe. Some of her favorite stories were from 7th grade, when her mother and father (who was a commercial artist who created Elmer and Elsie the Cows for the Borden company) took her out of school for a year of cross-country travel.

She graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL with a degree in history. During college, she attended a junior year abroad program at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. It was the first overseas junior year abroad program after WWII, sponsored by the University of Maryland. It was there that she met Hugh Woodward from Yale University.

Upon graduation from Northwestern, she attended Katherine Gibbs in NYC, and in June 1951, she married Hugh Woodward. Thinking she would finally settle down and start her career, she found out that she had married a Foreign Service Officer and would actually start moving around. So began their life, with their first posting in Bern, Switzerland. Their son Bartlett was born there in 1953. Subsequent postings included LaPaz, Bolivia, and Bonn and Bremen, Germany, where their second son, Christopher, was born in Bremerhaven in 1963. (She was known for her 10-year family planning idea.) Later her family lived in Bangkok, Thailand, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Washington DC/Bethesda. After Hugh’s retirement, she thought they would finally settle down - wrong again. For the next 27 years, they maintained a “his and hers” life - half of the year in MD, where she was near her beloved granddaughters, and half in NH, where Hugh enjoyed the cool summers and his garden.

After Hugh’s health declined, they moved to Asbury Methodist Village in Gaithersburg. Hugh was able to work at the State Dept. and the National Archives until he was 83. After his death in 2011, Keith finally settled down and enjoyed her golden years. She was an avid and skilled bridge player and created many award-winning needlepoint works. In her final years, she loved being near Bart and his family, and enjoyed visits from Chris, who lives near Seattle with his family.

Keith passed away on March 29, 2022 and her son Bart passed away four days later. She is survived by her son, Chris, his wife Michelle and their son Zach, and by Bart’s wife Lisa and their daughters Diana, Corinne and Ali.

Services will be private. She will be interred with Hugh in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington DC.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in her name to the American Cancer Society, Montgomery Hospice (Montgomery County, MD) or Northwestern University.